


One of those Haven days

by CookieDoughMe



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Animal Transformation, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29879373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CookieDoughMe/pseuds/CookieDoughMe
Summary: This came out of a conversation on Discord that started off talking out werewolves and ended up at were-rabbits and were-cats. This is one short and sweet possibility for how that might go.Thank you to AgentLadyHawkeye and GreyGullHaven for the inspiration!
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	One of those Haven days

“Hey I think there’s a ….” Duke stopped on his way into Audrey and Nathan’s office, distracted by an odd ‘ _ POPPP!! _ ’ sound behind him. He turned around to where Stan had been, and found a small and slightly startled-looking pony in his place.

“An animal transformation Trouble, yeah,” Audrey finished his sentence without stopping to look up from the paperwork she was frantically rifling through. “We think Nathan might be …”

‘ _ POPPP!! _ ’

They both looked over to the other side of the room. Nathan had been standing behind his desk flicking through more paperwork and now he was … not.

“Nathan?” Audrey cried.

They ran round either side of Nathan’s desk to find his clothes in a pile on the floor. Something was moving frantically inside the fabric. Duke reached out carefully to pull a shirt out of the way and jumped back in surprise when a startled rabbit appeared from underneath it. The rabbit launched itself away from them in alarm, darting this way and that for a while in the small space available to it, before finally retreating to a corner where it continued shaking in apparent fear.

“Nathan?” Audrey asked gently.

“It must be him, right?” Duke replied. “But why’s he so …?” he finished the question with a little panicked mime.

As the rabbit looked this way and that, his whiskers caught on the wall and he jumped in alarm, cowering away from it as though bitten. 

“He felt that,” Audrey realised. “This Trouble must have turned off his old one. He can feel again and everything must feel completely strange. I’d be freaking out too.”

“Detective, the Principal is on the phone for you,” Rafferty called through the increasing chorus of animal noises outside the office. 

“Ah!” Audrey jumped up, startling Nathan further. “I have to take this, that’s who we were trying to get hold of. Just try to calm him down and Do Not let him go anywhere,” Audrey told Duke sternly.

“How am I supposed to …?” Duke asked in ineffective protest.

Audrey called out a “Thanks,” as she went and shut the door firmly behind her.

Duke turned back to the rabbit, to Nathan. “Hey, buddy. It’s gonna be fine. Audrey’s gonna fix it.” He held out a hand cautiously, trying to remember if he knew anything at all about rabbits and deciding that, no, no he did not. He watched Nathan shake for a moment, shivering as though cold or - more likely - completely overwhelmed by a flood of new sensations. He was a small rabbit, with a mix of white and light grey fur; evidently appearance did not follow through from human to animal. The only thing that looked remotely like Nathan were the bright blue eyes. Otherwise, he was soft and fluffy, with floppy ears that looked like they might get in the way if he were trying to do anything besides hide in a corner. His nose twitched and his eyes darted warily around him but for the most part it looked like he was trying to move as little as possible.

Duke moved his hand a bit closer, and thought perhaps the scared shaking was slowing slightly, and that maybe the twitching little rabbit nose directed itself towards Duke’s hand. “You smell something?” Duke wondered. “What do I smell like, huh? Engine oil? Kitchen grease?” He kept talking, soft and low, assuming that Nathan couldn’t understand him but knowing that tone of voice was important with dogs, so maybe it would help here too. He kept his voice calm, and his breathing calm, and after a little while he reached out slowly to carefully run his hand over the rabbit’s ears and along his back in a gentle stroke.

-

Audrey spent longer on the phone with the Principal and talking to Rafferty than she expected, but by the time she returned to the office she thought she knew who the Troubled person was. She opened the door carefully, in case there was a frightened rabbit behind it, so was pleasantly surprised to find that both Duke and Nathan-the-rabbit were now on the sofa, Nathan on Duke’s lap. The shaking seemed to have slowed and the rabbit looked a lot calmer, Audrey thought. Duke had one hand resting against the rabbit’s side, the other making long slow strokes over his back. Audrey took a moment to watch, slightly calmed herself just by the sight of Duke’s careful fingers in the soft rabbit fur. His hands were almost as long as the rabbit was, she noted, and Nathan in bunny form really was rather adorable when you stopped to look. She shook herself out of it - this was a serious Trouble that had already put two people (and three currently-animals) in the hospital, she didn’t have time to enjoy the view.

“OK, I’m pretty sure this is the Troubled person,” she told Duke, brandishing a piece of paper with an address written on it. “I’m going to go speak to them now.”

Duke nodded and held a finger briefly to his lips before replying in a much calmer tone of voice than hers. “OK.”

“Is he … himself?” Audrey asked, quietly.

Duke looked down at the rabbit. “Pancakes are a terrible breakfast food,” he said.

The rabbit huffed through its nose and shook its head once, annoyed.

Audrey took that as a yes. “Nathan I am going to fix this. OK? I’m going to find the person with the Trouble now, and I am going to fix this, alright? You two just … stay there.”

-

It took her longer than she’d hoped, but a little while later Audrey made her way back through town, watching various different animals turn back into various different people, most of them apparently none the worse for the experience. She walked through the station and said hello to Stan, now back in his uniform and busy checking how many of HPD were currently animal-shaped, then she made her way on towards her office.

“OK we should be all good, people are turning back, it might just take a little while before … it gets … everyo...,” Audrey’s sentence faded as she closed her office door behind her. She had expected to find Duke still on the sofa with Nathan still on his lap. One or both of them possibly asleep, but probably still there. She hadn’t been gone  _ that  _ long.

But all that was on the sofa now was Duke’s shirt and a broken pile of necklaces. In the middle of the office sat a big cat - a panther maybe? Or no - a cougar, pale brown with darker fur around its eyes as though wearing the neatest eyeliner imaginable. It sat up as she came in, looking not-at-all surprised to see her and really quite pleased with itself. 

“Duke?” Audrey asked, amazed.

Duke-the-cat turned around to look down at Nathan-the-rabbit next to him, who now hardly seemed to be shaking at all. Duke leant down towards the rabbit, stuck out his big cat tongue and licked the side of Nathan’s face with enough friendly force that the rabbit nearly toppled over.

“Nathan?” Audrey stepped forwards concerned at the effect such enthusiastic grooming might be having on the tiny rabbit. Nathan righted himself easily though, and looked at her with a little nod. Duke put a large paw on Nathan’s other side in a kind of hug, and Nathan leaned into the contact, not at all startled now.

“Well OK then!” Audrey replied with a laugh. “Good job boys!” She sat down on the sofa, tired from all the running around town. “I can’t believe all it took for you two to stop snarking at each other was to get turned into animals. Actual animals,” she repeated to herself, surprised. She probably shouldn’t be surprised by this town any more, but there was always something. They should be turning back into their human selves soon, she would just rest here for a little while. No one would mind if she closed her eyes for a moment, surely.

A moment later she felt more than heard the big cat move up to her, and opened her eyes in time to see it carrying the rabbit carefully, as though Duke were the mother cat and Nathan one of his kittens. Duke dropped Nathan gently on Audrey’s lap, where he hopped up a little closer to her and rested his head against her hand. Duke jumped up on the sofa next to her and curled up with his heavy cat head warm on her knee.

Audrey reached out to scratch both of them behind the ear, amused as both of them leant into her touch at the same time. “You’re both so soft,” she told them. “I could get used to this; fluffy bunny and big cat snuggles. We’ll just stay here until you turn back,” she decided.

Nathan bristled slightly at being called a bunny, but the way Audrey was stroking his head meant he was inclined to forgive her. Audrey leant back and closed her eyes, and after a moment heard what she suddenly realised must be the sound of a big cat purring. 

It hadn’t been the best start to a day she'd ever had, but there could have been a lot worse ways for it to end.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, I have another animal transformation Trouble fic here: <https://archiveofourown.org/works/8476984> :)


End file.
